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<title>the road not taken looks real good now by Nightblaze</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28163565">the road not taken looks real good now</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightblaze/pseuds/Nightblaze'>Nightblaze</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Wilds (TV 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, F/F, Future Fic, like not chronologically but the fic ends on a high note?, with a happy ending?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 18:40:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,098</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28163565</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightblaze/pseuds/Nightblaze</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>years down the line, fatin's made it big. it's impossible not to regret it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dot Campbell/Fatin Jadmani</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>127</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the road not taken looks real good now</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Most days the island just felt like a bad dream. Other days the weight of it all threatened to crush Fatin into oblivion.</p><p>In those first few months after getting home, the world was off-kilter. Fatin couldn’t ever get it through her head that the water she was drinking was clean, that there was still enough food in the house to eat tomorrow, that she had a toothbrush and toothpaste and shower and soap waiting for her.</p><p>It was ten years later. Fatin had her own house—a massive thing overlooking the ocean, exactly what she always dreamt of when she was younger and still followed her mother around during open houses. She had a stable acting career, and only occasionally did interviewers ask her about her time stranded on an island and the other <em> Unsinkables, </em>as the media had called them before their fifteen minutes of fame ran out.</p><p>They didn’t talk, not anymore. Well, Fatin didn’t know about everybody else. She was busy, more often than not, and at some point the pings from their groupchat were drowned out by notifications from her fans and calls from her agent. Then the groupchat went inactive (the last message was from seven years ago) and Fatin had a running theory that another one was made without her.</p><p>The last she’d heard from any of them was Dot. Of course it was Dot—it was and always would be Dot. It was from six months ago, simply reading “you know it’s never too late.” Fatin wanted to believe her so badly—when she got the message she almost dropped everything to run back to her—but she’d left her on read and boarded the plane headed back to LA.</p><p>Without realizing it, Fatin had opened their texting history. She pursed her lips and typed out “i miss you,” but her fingers paused. She shook her head and turned off her phone without sending it.</p><p>Though it was the middle of June, Fatin’s house suddenly felt so cold and so, so lonely.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Couples like to tell the story of how they got together. Some kind of sweet moment, or a stupid game at a party. Something like that. For Fatin and Dot, that story was hard to pinpoint.</p><p>They were friends living together after the island for several months. They were domestic. They were devoted to taking care of each other and the cat they adopted. It was impossible to say exactly when that devotion crossed from friendship territory into romance.</p><p>It wasn’t the first time they had sex. It wasn’t the first time they kissed or the first time they went out on an actual date. It couldn’t be any of that, because then what were all the breakfasts they cooked together, or the long phone calls when Fatin was out of town visiting her brothers, or the nights when neither of them could sleep so they just silently sat together, basking in the comfort that they were still breathing?</p><p>If all of that wasn’t love, Fatin didn’t know what was.</p><p>But there was a definite moment they broke up.</p><p>It started off slowly. Fatin got her first breakout role in a horror movie of all things, and spent ten weeks on the east coast filming. It was hard being away from each other for so long, but they texted every day and called almost as often.</p><p>She started getting calls for more and more roles. The romantic interest in a rom-com, exactly the type she and Dot liked to laugh at for its cheesy dialogue, and then a couple more minor roles in assorted films.</p><p>Fatin was gone a lot.</p><p>It all came to a head two years after their return from the island. Two years of love and happiness and then it was over.</p><p>“I don’t think I can do it anymore, Dot,” Fatin had said as they laid in bed and Dot took her hand and kissed her knuckles in response.</p><p>“We’re making it work, aren’t we?”</p><p>“You deserve to be with someone who can be there for you.”</p><p>“But I want <em> you.” </em></p><p>Fatin kissed her, just in case she wouldn’t get to again. “And I want you to be happy.”</p><p>The look on Dot’s face was heartbreaking. “Okay.”</p><p>Fatin started packing in the morning.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>It was December, just a few days before Christmas, and Fatin was tracing constellations between the freckles on Dot’s bare back, wishing that she could stay in the moment forever. Just Dot and waking up in a warm bed and the sun barely starting to peek over the horizon.</p><p>If she never had to leave the bed, that meant she never had to leave Dot again.</p><p>It was a bad idea to call her last night, but they were in the same city for the first time in years. Fatin ached for comfort and she knew Dot would give her that. It would hurt both of them in the end, but right now, it was perfect.</p><p>“Good morning,” Fatin said when Dot began to stir. She turned around so she was facing Fatin.</p><p>“I can’t believe you’re actually awake,” Dot murmured, eyes still bleary from sleep. Fatin smiled through a new crack in her heart because what Dot meant was that Fatin had been gone for long enough to change without her there to see it. That they had spent more nights apart than they had together.</p><p>There was a time in Fatin’s life that she never thought that would happen. It hurt to think it already had.</p><p>Dot found Fatin’s hand under the blanket and raised it to her lips to kiss her knuckles. It was so familiar yet foreign at the same time that Fatin could have burst into tears.</p><p>This is what she left behind.</p><p>A beautiful woman with a heart of gold, the one person in the world who truly, fully, completely knew and loved her.</p><p>Dot must’ve seen the sadness on her face because her brow furrowed and she reached up to touch Fatin’s cheek. “Hey, it’s okay.”</p><p>“No, it’s not,” Fatin whispered. If she spoke any louder she knew Dot would hear the tears she was holding back. She probably could, anyway. It was Dot, after all.</p><p>“It’s okay.”</p><p>Fatin leaned into her touch, let herself relax again. “My flight’s this afternoon,” she said once she’d regained her composure.</p><p>“So we still have time.” Dot snuggled closer to Fatin. “I’ll take you out for breakfast.”</p><p>“No, let’s just…” Fatin sighed. “Let’s stay here.”</p><p>“You sure?”</p><p>“Yeah. Just you and me for a little while longer.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>just in case you couldn't tell. yes i had tis the damn season and dorothea by taylor swift on repeat while writing this. no i am not ashamed.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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